[The E]

The Sanctuary is not a combat-ready vessel. Against any of the current GTVA vessels, even ones as old and decrepit as Deimos Corvettes, it is utterly outclassed and that is before taking into account the decades upon decades of jury-rigged repairs and radiation exposure.

[General Battuta]

The Carthage too has almost certainty been rendered unfightable.

[MatthTheGeek]

The Carthage was already unable to survive an inter-system jump after Saturn, I wouldn't be surprised if it was unable to survive even an intra-system jump after Neptune and that they had to leave the derelict there. I don't think I'm streching it far by saying that ship will never fight again.

[Rodo]

Why do you think Calder will live after the Toutatis is lost?, I see him dying with the destroyer all the way up to the moon.

[Gray113]

I could see the Carthage being juryrigged to be a static beam platform protecting a key installation, perhaps automated or operated by a skeleton crew.

[crazy_dave]

I would love a few curveballs though that make what seem like the right decisions blow up in my face.

Spoiler:

like when I let the Gefs go in act 3

When I made that same decision I thought I was letting them live but returning them to UEF custody - if I had known I was letting them go, I wouldn't have done so. Operational security demanded no Vasudan or non-Fedayeen UEF survivors, it sure would've demanded no GEF survivors too - at least not free ones that could go blabbing to the GTA, Vasudans, and Kostadins about how they were forced to attack a Vasudan convoy with all the sensor, flight data, and communication logs as well as the fighters tricked out with explosives to prove it.

[Buckshee Rounds]

The Carthage was already unable to survive an inter-system jump after Saturn, I wouldn't be surprised if it was unable to survive even an intra-system jump after Neptune and that they had to leave the derelict there. I don't think I'm streching it far by saying that ship will never fight again.

Great War survivor, first counter to the Second Incursion, slayer of the Vassago, victim of a schizoid stealth fighter.

RIP Carthage, you deserved better.

[An4ximandros]

Shivan steamroll? that ain't ri'te!

[Gray113]

RIP Carthage, you deserved better.

She will have better - going out in a blaze of glory furfilling her original role of protecting Earth from hostile invaders. I can't think of a better ending for this legendary ship

Spoiler:

just imagine the reaction if she was used to take out the Imperieuse

[Phantom Hoover]

Yeah, a 50 year old destroyer which by this point is basically a hulk with functioning life support is really going to be able to take down a top of the line warship.

[Gray113]

Spoiler:

Not by going toe to toe but she could be used as a suprise shock jump to ram a destroyer for instance as she has a prototype sprint drive or jump in at the rear of a formation to carry out a suprise suicide beam attack or used to lure the TEVs in with a fake escape attempt by the GTVA crew captured in her finest hour or maybe even used to collapse the Sol jump node ala Bastion

Didn't say it was going to happen just said imagine the reaction

[MatthTheGeek]

I think you underestimate the current state of the Carthage. I am not sure it would survive someone sneezing in the engine room...

[Aesaar]

Yeah, I'm with Matth on this one.  I'm pretty sure the only thing the Carthage is good for now is becoming a war memorial.

Chances are the surviving elements of its BG (the Legionary, along with the Iolanthe, Deianira and the surviving cruisers if they got away from Neptune) will be folded into some other one.  The 2nd Battlegroup is gone.

She's still a more valuable asset then a repair crew with no repair ship to work on.

No, she probably isn't.  If Lopez is ever returned to the GTVA, chances are she'll be court-martialed for insubordination, which led to the loss of her ship and possibly her battlegroup.  Her career is over, and her good intentions might be the only thing that would save her from execution.

[Gray113]

I always wondered what happened to the captain of the Phonica after bearbaiting. Would she have been courtmarshaled for disobeying orders or praised for saving what was left of her crew?

I don't think that the TEV leaders will be to hard on Lopez - considering what Steele had put her through the Carthage had no reason even being at Neptune never mind the main picket defence.

[TheDemon]

What about the 3 corvettes I captured in Her Finest Hour? Surely those are worth about a frigate if they're operational, and to capture them I didn't need to do anything more to them than disable their engines.

[Aesaar]

Gray113: The Carthage had perfectly valid reasons for being at Neptune.  It was a combat ready vessel charged with protecting the station until ordered to retreat.  Lopez was ordered to retreat.  She refused to obey that lawful order, which , if the military code of justice of the GTVA is anything like US military's one, is punishable by the death penalty if in a time of war.  It wasn't even a tough assignment, and if she had followed orders, the Carthage would have gotten away just fine.

The GTVA isn't some touchy-feely Star Trek Federation where good intentions can get you acquitted of pretty much anything.

TheDemon: I didn't capture any corvettes.  If you did, then they'll probably be treated just like every other captured Tev warship.

[crizza]

I always wondered what happened to the captain of the Phonica after bearbaiting. Would she have been courtmarshaled for disobeying orders or praised for saving what was left of her crew?

I'm writing about the Phoenicia currently and I for my part imagine her Captain got kicked out of the fleet, while the Phoenicia situation is part of warship command lessons on the academy.

[Gray113]

The GTVA isn't some touchy-feely Star Trek Federation where good intentions can get you acquitted of pretty much anything.

I wouldn't imagine that it would be however military forces now are having to wake up to the psychological effects of combat on troops such as the appalling suicide rate amongst American troops coming home from Iraq or the raft of mental illness cases in Falklands war veterans.

Any organisation that was willing to sacrifice a battlegroup in order to win a key victory must be aware that there would be a problem with survivors guilt as well as PTSD and have appropriate provisions in place in order to help the survivors - post combat psychological screening at least. Lopez lost a lot of friends and colleagues during the battle of Saturn and didn't want to sacrifice any more to a war she had lost faith in. If the UEF knew that she was a liability then the GTVA leadership should have also been aware of it. Making Lopez far less culpable than the Hawks in the administration would have people believe.

[Aesaar]

Irrelevant.  She was given her break.  Neptune wasn't a tough assignment.  She stayed there because she wanted to assuage her own conscience.  She is not dependable.  PTSD doesn't excuse insubordination, not in a flag officer.  The trauma and the good intentions might save her from execution, but her career is over. 

I'll add that she got psychological screening, probably just like every other high ranking officer in that BG.  Do remember that there was enough time between DE and HFH that the Carthage was almost fully repaired.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Steele was perfectly aware that Lopez was a weak link in his command structure.  Hell, Neptune was probably also a test, to see if she would keep following her orders and was still dependable.  She failed miserably.

[Gray113]

Do remember that there was enough time between DE and HFH that the Carthage was almost fully repaired
Hell, Neptune was probably also a test, to see if she would keep following her orders and was still dependable.

Don't agree with that one, the Carthage was going back to GTVA space as soon as she was able taking Lopez out of the war.

I would think that it was more likley that steele knew what he was doing and got rid of one mortally wounded Orion destroyer in exchange for two fully equiped new Hecate battlegroups with crews that have no idea of the horrors that await them under Steele.